The Loyalists Of America And Their Times - free ebook by Egerton Ryerson

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From 1620 to 1816. Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada from 1844 to 1876....

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VOL. I.

TORONTO: WILLIAM BRIGGS, 80 KING STREET EAST; JAMES CAMPBELL &amp; SON, AND WILLING &amp; WILLIAMSON. MONTREAL: DAWSON BROTHERS. 1880. Entered , according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year One thousand eight hundred and eighty, by the Rev. Egerton Ryerson , D.D., LL.D., in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture....

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PREFACE.

As no Indian pen has ever traced the history of the aborigines of America, or recorded the deeds of their chieftains, their "prowess and their wrongs"—their enemies and spoilers being their historians; so the history of the Loyalists of America has never been written except by their enemies and spoilers, and those English historians who have not troubled themselves with examining original authorities, but have adopted the authorities, and in some instances imbibed the spirit, of American histori

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CHAPTER I.

Introduction.—Two Classes of Emigrants—Two Governments for Seventy Years—The "Pilgrim Fathers"—Their Pilgrimages and Settlement . In proceeding to trace the development and characteristics of Puritanism in an English colony, I beg to remark that I write, not as an Englishman, but as a Canadian colonist by birth and life-long residence, and as an early and constant advocate of those equal rights, civil and religious, and that system of government in the enjoyment of which Canada is conspicuous. I

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CHAPTER II.

The Government of the Pilgrim [10] Fathers during Seventy Years, from 1620 to 1692, as distinct from that of the Puritan Fathers. Two Governments .— Difference between the Government of the Pilgrims and that of the Puritans .—Most historians, both English and American, have scarcely or not at all noticed the fact that within the present State of Massachusetts two separate governments of Puritan emigrants were established and existed for seventy years—two governments as distinct as those of Upper

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CHAPTER III.

The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company and their Government, commencing in 1629. FIRST SETTLEMENT—ROYAL CHARTER GRANTED. English Puritanism, transferred from England to the head of Massachusetts Bay in 1629, presents the same characteristics which it developed in England. In Massachusetts it had no competitor; it developed its principles and spirit without restraint; it was absolute in power from 1629 to 1689, and during that sixty years it assumed independence of the Government to which

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CHAPTER IV.

The Government of Massachusetts Bay under the Long Parliament, the Commonwealth, and Cromwell . Charles the First ceased to rule after 1640, though his death did not take place until January, 1649. The General Court of Massachusetts Bay, in their address to the King's Commissioners in September, 1637, professed to offer "earnest prayers for long life and prosperity to his sacred Majesty and his royal family, and all honour and welfare to their Lordships;" but as soon as there was a prospect of a

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CHAPTER V.

Government of Massachusetts Bay and other Colonies, during Twenty Years, under Charles the Second . The restoration of Charles the Second to the throne of his ancestors was received in the several American colonies with very different feelings; the loyal colonies, from the Bermudas to Plymouth, hailed and proclaimed the restored King without hesitation; Virginia proclaimed him before he was proclaimed in England; [114] the rulers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony alone stood in suspense; hesitated

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CHAPTER VI.

Massachusetts during the Last Four Years of Charles the Second and James the Second, from 1680 to 1688—The Immediate Causes and Manner of Cancelling the First Charter . A crisis was now approaching. The state of things shown in the latter part of the preceding chapter could not be suffered always to continue. Means must be devised to bring it to an end. The Massachusetts Court had sent successive agents to England to explain and to make promises concerning many things complained of, to crave ind

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CHAPTER VII.

The Second Royal Charter; How Obtained—Massachusetts nearly Sixty Years under the Second Charter, from 1691 to 1748; to the Close of the First War between England and France, and the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle . I have traced the characteristics of the Government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony during fifty-four years under its first Charter, in its relations to the Crown, to the citizens of its own jurisdiction, to the inhabitants of the neighbouring colonies, and to the Indians; its denial of Ro

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CHAPTER VIII.

Massachusetts and other Colonies during the Second War between Great Britain and France, from the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748, to the Peace of Paris in 1763 . By the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, France and England retained their respective possessions as they existed before the war. Louisburg, which had been captured from the French in 1745 by the skill of the British Admiral Warren, aided most courageously by the Massachusetts volunteers, was therefore restored to the French, much to the regret

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CHAPTER IX.

Relations of England and the Colonies with each other and with Foreign Countries . I. The position of England in respect to the other European Powers after the Peace of Paris, 1763. Mr. Bancroft remarks: "At the peace of 1763, the fame of England was exalted throughout Europe above that of all other nations. She had triumphed over those whom she called her hereditary enemies, and retained half a continent as the monument of her victories. Her American dominions stretched without dispute from the

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CHAPTER X.

Stamp Act—Its Effects in America—Virginia Leads the Opposition to it—Riots and Destruction of Property in Boston—Petitions Against the Stamp Act in England—Rejoicings at its Repeal in England and America—The Declaratory Act. The intensity of the flame of colonial dissatisfaction, and which caused it to burst forth into a conflagration of complaint and resistance in all the colonies, was the announcement of a measure to raise a revenue in the colonies, by Act of Parliament, on the very day, March

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CHAPTER XI.

Authority of Parliament over the British Colonies. Before proceeding with a summary statement of events which followed the repeal of the Stamp Act, I think it proper to state the nature and extent of the authority of Parliament over the colonies, as interpreted by legislative bodies and statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr. Bancroft well remarks: "It is the glory of England that the rightfulness of the Stamp Act was in England itself a subject of dispute. It could have been so nowhere els

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CHAPTER XII.

Summary of Events from the Repeal of the Stamp Act, March , 1766, to the End of the Year . The universal joy caused in both Great Britain and America by the repeal of the Stamp Act foreshadowed a new era of unity and co-operation between the mother country and the colonies. But though trade and commerce resumed their activity, and mutual expressions of respect and affection characterized the correspondence, private and official, between England and America, the rejoicings of re-union were soon s

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CHAPTER XIII.

Events of 1767—A New Parliament—First Act against the Province of New York—Billeting Soldiers on the Colonies. A new House of Commons was elected in 1766, less favourable to the colonies than the preceding one; and one of the first acts of the new Parliament was founded on the intelligence received from New York, that the Assembly had refused to comply with all the requirements of the Billeting Act in providing for his Majesty's troops which had been quartered upon that province. [291] A Bill wa

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CHAPTER XIV.

Events of 1768—Protests and Loyal Petitions of the Colonists against the English Parliamentary Acts for Raising Revenue in the Colonies . The meetings and protests against the Revenue Acts and petitions for their repeal, which began in the autumn of 1767, increased throughout the colonies in 1768. In January, the General Assembly of Massachusetts voted a temperate and loyal petition to the King, [301] and letters urging the rights of the province, addressed to Lord Shelburne, General Conway, the

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CHAPTER XV.

Events of 1769—Unjust Imputations of Parliament on the Loyalty of the Colonists, and Misrepresentations of their Just and Loyal Petitions. The earliest proceedings of this year in regard to the American colonies took place in the British Parliament. In all the resolutions, protests, addresses, and petitions which had been adopted by American Assemblies and at town meetings, asserting the exclusive right of the colonists to tax themselves, and against taxation without representation by the Britis

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CHAPTER XVI.

Events of 1770—An Eventful Epoch—Expectations of Reconciliation and Union Disappointed . This was the year of bloody collision and parliamentary decision, which determined the future relations between Great Britain and the American colonies. Dr. Ramsay observes: "From the Royal and Ministerial assurances given in favour of America in 1769, and the subsequent repeal in 1770 of five-sixths of the duties which had been imposed in 1767, together with the consequent renewal of the mercantile intercou

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CHAPTER XVII.

Events of 1771, 1772, 1773—The East India Company's Tea Rejected in every Province of America—Resolutions of a Public Meeting in Philadelphia the Model for those of other Colonies. By this unprecedented and unjustifiable combination between the British Ministry and East India Company to supersede the ordinary channels of trade, and to force the sale of their tea in America, the returning peace and confidence between Great Britain and the colonies was arrested, the colonial merchants of both Engl

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CHAPTER XVIII.

Events of 1774—All Classes in the Colonies Discontented—All Classes and all the Provinces Reject the East India Company's Tea . The year 1774 commenced, among other legacies of 1773, with that of the discontent of all the colonies, [325] their unanimous rejection of the East India tea, stamped with the threepenny duty of parliamentary tax, as the symbol of the absolutism of King and Parliament over the colonies. The manner of its rejection, by being thrown into the sea at Boston, was universally

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CHAPTER XIX.

1774, until the Meeting of the First General Congress in September . The responses to the appeals of Boston and the proposals of the Assembly of Massachusetts, for a meeting of Congress of all the colonies, were prompt and general and sympathetic beyond what had been anticipated; and in some colonies the expressions of approval and offers of co-operation and assistance preceded any knowledge of what was doing, or had been done, in Massachusetts. In Virginia the House of Burgesses were in session

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CHAPTER XX.

The General Congress or Convention at Philadelphia, September and October , 1774. The word Congress, in relation to the United States, is synonymous with the word Parliament in Great Britain, signifying the Legislature of the nation at large; but before the revolution the word Congress was used, for the most part, as synonymous with Convention—a voluntary meeting of delegates elected by towns or counties for certain purposes. A meeting of delegates from the several towns of a county was called a

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CHAPTER XXI.

The re-assembling of parliament—Letters from Colonial Governors, Revenue and Military Officers, against the Colonists opposed to the Ministerial Policy—The Ministry, Supported by Parliament, determine upon Continuing and Strengthening the Coercive Policy against the Colonies . On the re-assembling of Parliament in January, 1775, a number of papers were produced from governors, and revenue and military officers in America, which contained various statements adverse to the proceedings and members

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CHAPTER XXII.

1775 Continued—Parliament Proceeds to Pass an Act to Punish all the New England Colonies for Sympathising with Massachusetts, by Restricting their Trade to England and Depriving them of the Newfoundland Fisheries. The British Ministry and both Houses of Parliament do not seem to have been satisfied with having charged Massachusetts and its abettors with rebellion, and determined to punish the recusant province and its metropolis accordingly, but they proceeded, during the same session, even to p

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CHAPTER XXIII.

1775 Continued—The Second Continental Congress in America . Six months after the General Assembly of New York adopted its Memorial, and four months after its rejection by both Houses of Parliament, the second Continental Congress met, in the month of September, at Philadelphia. This Assembly consisted of fifty-five members, chosen by twelve colonies. The little colony of Georgia did not elect delegates, but promised to concur with the sister colonies in the effort to maintain their rights to the

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CHAPTER XXIV.

1775 and beginning of 1776—Preparation in England to Reduce the Colonists to Absolute Submission—Self-asserted Authority of Parliament . The eventful year of 1775—the year preceding that of the American Declaration of Independence—opened with increased and formidable preparations on the part of England to reduce the American colonies to absolute submission. The ground of this assumption of absolute power over the colonies had no sanction in the British Constitution, much less in the history of t

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CHAPTER XXV.

The Assembling of Congress, May 10th, 1776, and Transactions until the Declaration of Independence, the 4th of July. It was under the circumstances stated in the preceding chapter, the General Congress, according to adjournment the previous October, reassembled in Philadelphia the 10th of May, 1776. The colonies were profoundly convulsed by the transactions which had taken place in Massachusetts, Virginia, North and South Carolina, by the intelligence from England, that Parliament had, the previ

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CHAPTER XXVI.

Declaration of Independence Discussed . The foregoing chapters bear ample testimony how heartily I have sympathized with our elder brother colonists of America, in their conception and manly advocacy and defence of their constitutional rights as British subjects; how faithfully I have narrated their wrongs and advocated their rights, and how utterly I have abhorred the despotic conduct of George the Third, and of his corrupt Ministers and mercenary and corrupted Parliament, in their unscrupulous

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AND

From 1620 to 1816. Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada from 1844 to 1876....

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VOL. II.

TORONTO: WILLIAM BRIGGS, 80 KING STREET EAST; JAMES CAMPBELL &amp; SON, AND WILLING &amp; WILLIAMSON. MONTREAL: DAWSON BROTHERS. 1880. Entered , according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year One thousand eight hundred and eighty, by the Rev. Egerton Ryerson , D.D., LL.D, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture....

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CHAPTER XXVII.

The War of the American Revolution after the Declaration of Independence — The Alliance between the Congress and King of France — The Alliance not Productive of the Effects Anticipated — Efforts of the British Government for Reconciliation with the Colonies not Successful. It was supposed, both in America and France, that when the alliance between the King of France and Congress, referred to in the last chapter of the previous volume, became known in England, though it was not publicly avowed un

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CHAPTER XXVIII.

Complete Failure of the French Fleet and Army, under Count D'Estaing, to Assist the Congress . The leaders of Congress were disappointed in the high expectations which they had entertained from their unnatural alliance with France. Count D'Estaing left France with a much more powerful fleet than Lord Howe commanded in America, besides bringing an army of several thousand soldiers. He had expected to surprise and capture the British ships in the River Delaware; but Lord Howe had sailed for New Yo

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CHAPTER XXIX.

1780— A Year of Weakness and Disaster to the American Cause, and of Success to the British Arms. The year 1780 was inauspicious for the revolutionary cause, but auspicious for the English. The financial embarrassments arising from the depreciation of the paper-money engaged the anxious deliberations of Congress, [34] and Washington's army was by no means able to cope with the northern division of the English army. [35] But La Fayette, now returned from a recent visit to France, during which he h

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CHAPTER XXX.

The French and Congress Allies in 1781 Recover Virginia—Surrender of Lord Cornwallis—Results . Under the adverse circumstances and gloom which attended and closed the year 1780, as stated in the preceding chapter, Washington felt the necessity of doing something bold and great to revive the confidence of his countrymen and arrest the decline of his army. Under these circumstances, a campaign of operations was devised and agreed upon by Washington and the commander of the French troops. The centr

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CHAPTER XXXI.

Change of Administration in England—Change of Policy for both England and the Colonies—Peace Negotiations at Paris—The Cause of the United Empire Loyalists. During the adjournment of Parliament from the 24th to the 28th of March, the new Administration was formed, and announced in the Commons on the 28th, when the House adjourned over the Easter holidays, to give time for the re-election of such members as had accepted office. The King first sent for the Earl of Shelburne to form a new Administr

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CHAPTER XXXII.

Origin of Republicanism and Hatred of Monarchy in America—Thomas Paine: a Sketch of his Life, Character, and Writings, and their Effects . No social or political phenomenon in the history of nations has been more remarkable than the sudden transition of the great body of the American colonists, in 1776, from a reverence and love of monarchical institutions and of England, in which they had been trained from their forefathers, to a renunciation of those institutions and a hatred of England. Whate

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CHAPTER XXXIII.

Hiring of Foreigners and Employment and Treatment of Indians in the American War . No two acts of the British Government in connection with the American war were more deprecated on both sides of the Atlantic than the employment of foreign troops and Indians against the colonists; they were among the alleged and most exciting causes of the Declaration of Independence; they weakened British influence throughout the colonies; they roused thousands to arms who would have otherwise remained peacefull

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CHAPTER XXXIV.

The Massacre of Wyoming—Four Versions of it by Accredited American Historians, all Differing from Each Other—The Facts Investigated, and False Statements Corrected . It would be useless and tedious to attempt even a condensed account of the battles and warfare in which the Indians took part between the English and the Congress; but there is one of these revengeful and murderous occurrences which must be minutely stated, and the American accounts of it thoroughly investigated, as it has been the

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CHAPTER XXXV.

American Retaliation for the Alleged "Massacre of Wyoming," as narrated by American Historians . We will now state from the same historical authorities the revenge which the continentals took for the "Massacre of Wyoming." Dr. Ramsay says: "Soon after the destruction of the Wyoming settlement, an expedition was carried on against the Indians by Colonel Zebulon Butler, of the Pennsylvania troops. He and his party having gained the head of the Delaware, October 1st, marched down the river two days

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CHAPTER XXXVI.

Situation and Treatment of the Loyalists During the War. The condition of the United Empire Loyalists for several months before, as well as after, the Declaration of Independence, was humiliating to freemen and perilous in the extreme; and that condition became still more pitiable after the alliance of the revolutionists with the French—the hereditary enemies of both England and the colonies. From the beginning the Loyalists were deprived of the freedom of the press, freedom of assemblage, and u

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APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XXXVI.

The Acts of Legislative Bodies for the Punishment of the Adherents to the Crown were numerous . "In Rhode Island , death and confiscation of estate were the penalties by law for any person who communicated with the Ministry or their agents, or who afforded supplies to the forces, or piloted the armed ships of the King. Besides these general statutes, several Acts were passed in that State to confiscate and sequester the property of certain persons who were designated by name. "In Connecticut , t

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CHAPTER XXXVII.

Treatment of the Loyalists by the Americans, at and after the American Revolution . It remains now to ascertain the reception with which the applications of Loyalists were met in the several State Legislatures. During the last three years of the war, the principal operations of the British army were directed to the Southern States; and there the exasperations of party feeling may be supposed to have been the strongest. [116] No where had arbitrary authority been exercised more unmercifully towar

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APPENDIX A. TO CHAPTER XXXVII.

Review of the Principal Characteristics of the American Revolution, and Remarks on the Feelings which should now be Cultivated by both of the Former Contending Parties . The entire failure of the Americans to conquer Canada in the war of 1812-1815 is an illustration of the folly of coercing the allegiance of a people against their will. Upper Canada at that time consisted of less than 100,000 inhabitants; yet, with the extra aid of only a few hundred English soldiers, she repelled for three year

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APPENDIX B. TO CHAPTER XXXVII.

Reflections of Lord Mahon on the American Contest and its Results—Apology for George the Third—Unhappiness of Americans since the Revolution—Unity of the Anglo-Saxon Race . At this period (Declaration of Independence), the culminating point in the whole American war, I may be forgiven for desiring to interrupt its narrative in order to review its course and its results. That injurious and oppressive acts of power had been inflicted by England upon America, I have in many places shown, and do mos

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CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Treatment of the Loyalists by the British Government and Parliament after the Revolution ....

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PART I.

PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT—REFUSAL OF THE STATES TO COMPENSATE THE LOYALISTS. It has been seen, by the fact stated in the last preceding chapter, that the promised recommendations of Congress to the several States, as agreed upon by the English and American Commissioners of the peace negotiations at Paris, were, as had been expected and predicted by Dr. Franklin at the time, without any result, the State Legislatures passing Acts to proscribe rather than compensate the Loyalists. In justification

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PART II.

AGENTS OF LOYALISTS—PROCEEDINGS OF PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION—RESULTS. Of course all hope of obtaining relief under the stipulations of the treaty was abandoned by the Loyalists, who "now applied to the Government which they had ruined themselves to serve, and many of them, who had hitherto been 'refugees' in different parts of America, went to England to state and recover payment for their losses. They organized an agency, and appointed a Committee composed of one delegate or agent from each of t

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CHAPTER XXXIX.

The Loyalists Driven from the United States to the British Provinces . The Loyalists, after having been stripped of their rights and property during the war, and driven from their homes, and hunted and killed at pleasure, were exiled from all right of residence and citizenship at the close of the war; and though the Treaty of Peace engaged that Congress should recommend the several States to compensate them for the losses of their property, the Legislatures of the several States (with one except

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CHAPTER XL.

Brief Sketches of some Individual Loyalists—First Settlers in Canada and other British Provinces . It is not possible to give biographical sketches of all the old Loyalists, officers and soldiers. To do justice to their character and merits would require a massive volume. Besides, the data for such a volume are for the most part wanting. It is not the object of this history to give a biography of the Loyalists; that must be done by others, if attempted at all. The Loyalists were not writers, but

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CHAPTER XLI.

First Settlement of Loyalists in the British Provinces, Especially Upper Canada—Their Adventures and Hardships, as Written by Themselves or their Descendants . In 1861 I addressed a printed circular to the United Empire Loyalists and their descendants in the British Provinces of North America, stating the design and scope of the history I proposed to write respecting them, in compliance with a call which had been made upon me by the press and members of all parties, and requesting the surviving

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CHAPTER XLII.

Governments of the British Provinces—Nova Scotia . To the painful narrative given of the banishment of the Loyalists, and confiscation of their property, at the close of the revolutionary war, and their settlement in the British provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Lower and Upper Canada, so fully detailed in the preceding pages, it is proper to add some account of the Provincial Governments. Nova Scotia is the oldest of the present British American Provinces. This territory had the general

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CHAPTER XLIII.

New Brunswick. The population of New Brunswick at the time of its separation from Nova Scotia, in 1784, was about 12,000. The governments of both provinces were similarly constituted—a Governor, an Executive and Legislative Council, members of the latter appointed by the Crown for life, and an Assembly or House of Commons, elected periodically by the freeholders: and both provinces were prosperous and contented for many years under successive governors, who seemed to have ruled impartially, and

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CHAPTER XLIV.

Prince Edward Island. Prince Edward Island was first called by the French St. John's Island, on account of the day on which the French landed on it; but in 1799 its name was changed, and it was called Prince Edward's Island in honour of the Duke of Kent, (William Edward) afterward William IV. After the close of the American Revolution in 1783, a considerable number of the exiled Loyalists went to Prince Edward's Island and became merchants and cultivators of the soil. "In 1763 the island was inc

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CHAPTER XLV.

Lower Canada. Lower Canada was first possessed by the French, and under the rule of France the government was purely despotic, though not cruel or harsh. On the conquest of Lower Canada in 1759, and its final ceding to England by the Treaty of Paris, 1763, a military government was instituted, which continued until 1774, when the famous "Quebec Act" was passed by the Imperial Parliament, known as the 14th George the Third, Chapter 83; or as "the Quebec Act"—it was introduced into the House of Lo

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CHAPTER XLVI.

Government of Upper Canada . The Constitution of Upper Canada was the same as that of Lower, established by the same Constitutional Act of 1791 , the Act 31 George III., Chapter 31. Before the Constitution of Upper Canada was established, when it formed part of the province of Quebec, Lord Dorchester, by proclamation, divided the now western part of the province, afterwards Upper Canada, into four districts with German names—namely, Lunenburg , extending from the River Ottawa to Gananoque; Meckl

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CHAPTER XLVII.

War by the United States against Great Britain, from 1812 to 1815—Introductory and General Remarks . The war between Great Britain and the United States, from 1812 to 1815, furnishes the strongest example of the present century, or of any age or country, of the attachment of a people to their mother country, and of their determination, at whatever sacrifice and against whatever disparity, to maintain the national life of their connection with it. The true spirit of the Loyalists of America was n

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CHAPTER XLVIII.

Alleged and Real Causes of the War . From the first—from the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States in 1783—there was a large party in the United States bitterly and actively hostile to England and its colonies; that party had persecuted and driven the Loyalists from the United States, and compelled them to seek homes in the Canadian wilderness, and had even followed them with its enmities in their new abodes; that party had sympathized with the revolutionists of France, who

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CHAPTER XLIX.

Declaration of War by the United States against Great Britain, and Preparations for the Invasion of Canada . The Bill for declaring war against Britain passed the Congress June 18th, 1812, after protracted discussions: by the House of Congress, by a majority of forty—seventy-nine to thirty-nine—by the Senate, by a majority of six. [184] The vote for the declaration of war was a purely party vote; the war itself was a purely partizan war—the carrying out of intrigue between the American Democrati

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CHAPTER L.

Preparations by Canada against the American Invasions. 1. LOWER CANADA. It now becomes our duty to state the preparations made by the Canadians for their own defence against the American invasions. Though so few in number and modest in pretensions to their multitudinous and boasting invaders, they had the hearts of freemen and patriots, and trusted to the Divine blessing in the justness of their cause. [189] We shall notice first the preparations of Lower Canada, and then those of Upper Canada.

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CHAPTER LI.

First American Invasion of Upper Canada by General Hull, from Detroit, whose Proclamation "To the Inhabitants of Canada" is given entire, and General Brock's Noble Answer to it, in an Address to the People of Upper Canada . In the meantime Canada, in its western extremity, had been invaded. The American Government had been for several months collecting an army of some 3,000 or 4,000 regular troops and militia, around and west of Detroit, in order to strike a blow upon Canada the moment war shoul

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CHAPTER LII.

General Brock Prepares for an Attack on Detroit, and with a Small Force takes General Hull and his Army Prisoners, and Acquires Possession of Detroit and the Territory of Michigan—Incidents Preceding and Attending the Taking of Detroit—General Brock's Proclamation to the Inhabitants of the Michigan Territory—His Council with the Indians, and Conversation with the Great Chief Tecumseh, and Estimate of him—General Brock Returns to York (Toronto)—What he Did in Nineteen Days. General Brock did not

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CHAPTER LIII.

Second American Invasion of Upper Canada at Queenston—Disproportion of American and Canadian Forces—Death of General Brock—Defeat and Loss of the Americans—Armistice—Incidents which occurred on the Niagara Frontier, at Fort Erie, as related By Lieutenant Driscoll, of the 100th Regiment. The second invasion of Upper Canada took place on the Niagara frontier, at Queenston. We will give the account of it (condensed) from the History of the War by Mr. Thompson, of the Royal Scots: "Dispirited at suc

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CHAPTER LIV.

Third American Invasion of Upper Canada, at and near Fort Erie, on the Niagara River, under General Smyth—His Address to his Soldiers—The Ludicrous and Disgraceful Failure of his Expedition—Three American Expeditions Repelled in 1812 by the Spartan Bands of Canadian Volunteers, assisted by a Few Regiments of English Soldiers. Such was the result of the second invasion of Canada —the first invasion on the Niagara frontier by the American "Grand Army of the Centre." The Americans, after recovering

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CHAPTER LV.

Fourth American Invasion—First Invasion of Lower Canada, completely Defeated by the Courage and Skill of the Canadians; and General Dearborn retires into Winter Quarters at Plattsburg. But in addition to these three abortive invasions of Upper Canada in 1812, was one of Lower Canada , which will be narrated in the words of Mr. Christie, illustrating as it does the ardent loyalty and noble heroism of the French Canadians: "The American forces, under General Dearborn, gradually approached the fron

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CHAPTER LVI.

PART I. WAR CAMPAIGNS OF 1813—THREE DIVISIONS OF THE AMERICAN ARMY—BATTLE OF FRENCHTOWN, AMERICANS DEFEATED—MISREPRESENTATIONS CORRECTED. The campaign of 1813 opened auspiciously for the Canadians, in both Upper and Lower Canada, notwithstanding the fewness of their defenders in regulars, militia, and Indians, and though they suffered severely in several instances towards the close of the year. It was manifest from the movement of the American army to the frontiers of Upper and Lower Canada, bef

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CHAPTER LVII.

Movements and Campaigns of 1814—The Third and Last Year of the War . PART I. PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN—REINFORCEMENTS FROM NEW BRUNSWICK—ROYAL APPROBATION OF CANADIAN LOYALTY AND COURAGE—AMERICAN INVASION OF THE DISTRICT OF MONTREAL UNDER GENERAL WILKINSON—THE LARGE FORCE OF AMERICANS DEFEATED AT LE COLLE BY A SMALL FORCE OF CANADIANS—RETURN TO PLATTSBURG, WHERE GENERAL WILKINSON, DISAPPOINTED AND MORTIFIED, RETIRES FROM THE ARMY. The total failure for two years of the expeditions which had

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CHAPTER LVIII.

Last Invasions and Last Battles of the War. PART I. GENERAL BROWN TAKES FORT ERIE—DEFEATS GENERAL RIALL ON THE PLAINS OF CHIPPEWA—ADVANCES TO FORT GEORGE—HIS OFFICERS AND ARMY PLUNDER THE INHABITANTS—RETREATS BACK TO CHIPPEWA—BURNS THE VILLAGE OF ST. DAVID'S ON THE WAY. On the Niagara frontier, the American army commanded by General Brown, and consisting of about 7,000 men, began early in the summer to concentrate at Buffalo, Black Rock, and other points, and on the 3rd of July invaded Canada in

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CHAPTER LIX.

Miscellaneous Documents and Papers, Extracted from Manuscripts Respecting the U.E. Loyalists in the Dominion Library at Ottawa . "CHARACTER OF THE MILITIA." ETC., ETC. I. "Amongst the first settlers on the frontier of Upper Canada were those faithful and loyal men, the United Empire Loyalists, with the Six Nations of Indians, who, at the sacrifice of their all, were steadfast to the British Crown during the revolutionary struggle of the old British colonies, now the United States, for independen

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CHAPTER LX.

Close of the War and of the History of the U.E. Loyalists—Defeat and Disgrace of the Democratic Invaders of Canada—Honour and Success of its Defenders—Comparative State of the United States and Canada at the Close of the War—Mutual Respect and Friendship between Americans and Canadians—Concluding Remarks . Thus closed the war of the United States against Great Britain, in 1812-15—a war undertaken at the prompting of the scourge of Europe, Napoleon, but upon pretexts which were never so much as m

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